The PRIDE Study is a new longitudinal study by the t of California San Francisco. It is the first long-term study ever launched on LGBTQ health.

Long time readers may remember when I wrote about the Institute of Medicine report on LGBT health. I jokingly summarize it as “400 pages to say that we need more data.” With studies like The PRIDE Study, we can change that. We can get real, hard, high quality data on the health needs of our communities.

Knowing the health needs of our neighbors, lovers, and friends means we can have a real impact on their health.

As always, data collected as part of the study is kept confidential. You can opt out any time you want. You can also opt into additional studies that will be connected to The PRIDE Study.

So please — if you identify as LGBTQ and can spare 30 minutes a year, join The PRIDE Study.

And spread the word!

We’ll be back to our regular programming here at Open Minded Health next week.

On October 6, 2016 the National Institutes of Health in the United States designated gender and sexual minorities a disparity population for the purposes of research. This is tremendous news. The NIH is the health research arm of the US government. It gives grants. Scientists working there do crucial research. The NIH provides training and research opportunities for students and professionals alike.

Long time readers of Open Minded Health may remember the many times I’ve said “we need more research.” This is part of how we get that research. Through incentives that can now be provided by the NIH, and through the hard work of all connected with it.

Slowly but surely gender and sexual minority health is becoming better understood. And only through understanding it can we even begin to improve it. Ultimately so that we can all live healthier, longer, happier lives.

Read the full declaration below.

Sexual and Gender Minorities Formally Designated as a Health Disparity Population for Research Purposes

On behalf of many colleagues who have worked together to make today possible, I am proud to announce the formal designation of sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) as a health disparity population for NIH research. The term SGM encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations, as well as those whose sexual orientation, gender identity and expressions, or reproductive development varies from traditional, societal, cultural, or physiological norms.

Mounting evidence indicates that SGM populations have less access to health care and higher burdens of certain diseases, such as depression, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. But the extent and causes of health disparities are not fully understood, and research on how to close these gaps is lacking.

In addition, SGM populations have unique health challenges. More research is needed to understand these challenges, such as transgender people taking exogenous hormones.

Progress has been made in recent years, with gains in legal rights and changing social attitudes. However, stigmatization, hate-violence, and discrimination are still major barriers to the health and well-being of SGM populations. Research shows that sexual and gender minorities who live in communities with high levels of anti-SGM prejudice die sooner—12 years on average—than those living in more accepting communities.

The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000 authorizes the Director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), in consultation with the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to define health disparity populations. This month, with strong support from AHRQ Director Andrew Bindman, M.D., I formally designate sexual and gender minorities as a disparity population for research purposes.

The designation builds on previous steps by NIH to advance SGM health research. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (now The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) published an NIH-commissioned report on LGBT health issues. In response to the report recommendations, NIH extended its research portfolio and created the Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO). The SGMRO, within the Office of the Director, coordinates NIH-supported activities on SGM health issues and provides guidance to researchers within and outside of NIH.

I offer my gratitude to inaugural SGMRO Director Karen L. Parker, Ph.D., M.S.W., and NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D., who led the proposal for designation. I also offer my gratitude to colleagues across NIH who served on the NIH-established working group for their careful consideration on this matter.

This designation marks an important and necessary step in realizing NIH’s mission to advance the health of all Americans.

The recent shooting in Pulse, a gay nightclub, in Orlando is horrific. I struggle to find words. This was a senseless act of hatred.

Black Ribbon – a symbol of mourn

Support comes in many forms. If you’re local, the Orlando LGBT Center has information on how you can help, including a GoFundMe donation page. If you can give blood, money, or time — then please do so. As John Scalzi so eloquently put it, “In the aftermath of terrible violence, offer thoughts, and prayers, if it is your desire to do so. Then offer more than thoughts and prayers.”

Take care of yourself too. If you need, there is an LGBT Hotline available. Call a friend, visit your local community center, see a counselor, or go for a long run. Do what you need to do.

But please, don’t turn this tragedy into an anti-Muslim cry. This was not an attack organized by an entire religion. This was an attack by one individual. We must all stand together in love and against hate. I highly recommend reading this press release and this article, if you want to know more.

This is not the first time that gender and sexual minority communities have been attacked. This is not the first time that an act of hate is being used to attack another minority group. It will likely not be the last.

We mourn. We weep. We give. We change, and we act to prevent. And we will dance. Because to not dance is to let the hatred and fear kill the joy of life. And that would be the ultimate loss.

I’ve been saying for years now that the phrase “LGBT community” is insufficient when it comes to health. It’s not one community — it is multiple communities. The social issues and health issues that a gay transgender man faces every day are different from the issues a bisexual cisgender woman faces every day. There are some similarities and grouping the communities together has been politically useful. But it should never be forgotten that L, G, B, and T all face different types of health concerns and have different civil rights battles to face.

A study came out in August that has to be one of my favorites this year. Researchers in Georgia surveyed over three thousand lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, gender non-conforming, and queer people. They asked about health behaviors of all kinds. And then they did statistical analysis, comparing the various genders (cis male, cis female, trans male, trans female, genderqueer) and sexual orientations (lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, queer, straight). Let’s look at what they found!

Diet and exercise: The researchers asked about fatty foods, eating while not hungry, quantity of vegetables and fruits eaten, and about hours and types of exercise. Transgender women had the least healthy diet of all genders. As a group, they were less likely to eat many fruits and vegetables, and more likely to drink sugared drinks and eat when they weren’t hungry. Both cisgender and transgender men were also less likely to eat many vegetables compared with other groups. Genderqueer people and gay cisgender men were most likely to exercise.

Substance use: The researchers asked about smoking tobacco and alcohol consumption. Cisgender men were the most likely to drink alcohol, binge drink, and to drink even when they didn’t want to. Participants who identified as queer were also more likely to drink. When it came to tobacco, transgender men and straight participants were the most likely to smoke.

Motor vehicle risk: The researchers asked about seatbelt use, speeding, and texting while driving. No clear differences for speeding were noted. Transgender men and straight participants were most likely to drive without a seatbelt. Texting while driving varied considerably; gay and lesbian drivers were most likely to text while driving.

Sexual behaviors: The researchers asked about frequency of unprotected sex and sex while intoxicated. Gay men were least likely to have unprotected sex while lesbian women were most likely to have unprotected sex. When it came to sex while intoxicated, only the bisexual participants stood out as being most likely among the groups to have sex while intoxicated.

Violence: The researchers asked about self harm and expressing anger at others. Overall rates of interpersonal anger were very low. Transgender men and pansexual people were most likely to self harm.

Medical risk taking: The researchers asked about delaying medical care and not following physician advice. Transgender women were least likely to seek care; 1/3 reported that they regularly delayed seeking medical care. Both transgender women and transgender men were more likely to not follow medical advice when it was given. Bisexual people were also more likely to delay seeking medical care compared to lesbian and gay participants.

That’s a mouthful, right? There are a lot of details I left out of this summary and it still threatens to be overwhelming with detail. So how we can break this down even more simply? By talking about the conclusions.

The researchers go into some possible causes for all these different results. Maybe gay men are safer about sex because of HIV risk. Maybe transgender men eat few vegetables because of cultural expectations that “men eat lots of meat and not many vegetables.” Maybe gay and lesbian people text more while driving because of the lack of community-specific messages.

Maybe. And they’re all good thoughts.

I tend to look forward more to what we can do with these data. I’m pretty happy with this study — it’s one of the broadest I’ve seen for inclusion. Few health-oriented pieces of research include pansexual and genderqueer individuals.

It’s important to remember that these results are at the group level. Any individual person who is a gender/sexual minority will have their own health behaviors and risks. They should be evaluated and treated as individuals. From a public health perspective though, this research brings valuable data. Only by knowing what each group faces can prevention, screening, and treatment campaigns be created. Only by knowing, for example, that transgender and bisexual people avoid seeking medical care can we then examine “why?” and act to remove the barriers so that appropriate, respectful medical care is available.

So — can we change the conversation? Instead of talking about “the LGBT community”, let’s talk about “the LGBT communities”. Or, even better, “gender and sexual minority communities” — removing the alphabet soup and expanding the definitions at the same time. This research is only the tip of the iceberg. We have so much more to explore.

Being a gender or sexual minority (GSM) is not only difficulty and tricky for patients — it can also be a challenge for medical providers. Medicine can be a particularly conservative field, depending on location and specialty. Lives are, after all, often at stake.

Despite recent advances it appears that some 40% of lesbian, gay and bisexual medical students are hiding their sexual minority status in medical school. Among transgender medical students, 70% were hiding their identity. All because of fear of discrimination.

That fear has been, and still is, warranted. From medical providers transitioning and losing their practices, to medical students losing their residency slots, to LGBT health student organizations fighting to exist, LGBT providers face similar discrimination as our patients. Similar happens for other gender and sexual minority health care providers, though we lack statistics. At a meeting of kink-identified mental health care providers, one attendee noted a high level of vulnerability for the clinicians. Being “outed” could lose them their jobs or even trigger legal action.

To some extent, discretion among health care providers is warranted. Most people don’t want to know about their clinician’s (or coworker’s) personal lives. And most GSM providers don’t actually want to share those most intimate details. It’s where the line is that can be distressing — how much information is too much? Can I discuss my wife when other women clinicians are discussing their husbands? How exactly do you notify your fellow clinicians or patients about a change in gender pronouns or name? How can a clinician use information gained from intimate encounters to help patients, without revealing too much? It’s a balance we constantly seek. Sometimes mentors are there and can help. Other times we figure it out as we go along.

Yet we bring a lot to the table, as minorities. Like many racial and ethnic minorities, there are pressures and issues that affect GSM people more than the majorities. We bring that knowledge with us to the research we choose to perform, the communities we participate in, and each and every patient encounter.

We as clinicians and future clinicians need to have the support in order to be appropriately open about our gender and sexual minority status. Our patients and clients must know they can be safe and honest with us so they can receive the most complete and respectful care possible.

I’m proud to say that my medical school has been accepting and supportive of its gender and sexual minority patients, and that clinics in the area of my medical school are seeking to expand their care to be more inclusive of LGBT patients. Support exists for both those seeking medical care, and those seeking to provide that care. It’s only the beginning.

What is Open Minded Health?

OMH is dedicated to providing information about gender and sexual minority health. Posts are a mix of the latest research, activity risk reduction tips, and the latest news.

This blog is definitely not suitable for children, and probably not work safe. It contains descriptions of sexual activities that may disturb some readers.

Also please be aware: I am not a doctor. OMH does not provide health care advice - the information here is to be used as information only. It does not substitute a visit to your health care provider. When in doubt, please ask your health care provider.

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